Admissions

Who is the Course Director with overall responsibility for students on this course?

Each set of taught degrees has a specific course director, as follows:

M.Phil., M.Sc. and M.St. in Social Anthropology (SA): Dr Robert Parkin

M.Phil. and M.Sc. in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (MAME):Dr Laura Peers or Dr Clare Harris (rotates)

M.Phil. and M.Sc. in Medical Anthropology (MA): Dr Elisabeth Hsu (if on leave, Prof. Stanley Ulijaszek)

M.Sc. in Visual Anthropology (VA): Prof. Marcus Banks (if on leave, Dr Inge Daniels)

M.Sc. in Migration Studies (MS): Dr Xiang Biao

M.Sc. in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology (CAE): Dr Justin Barrett or Prof. Robin Dunbar (rotates)

Your main supervisor may not be the course convenor but another member of the academic staff.

The Director of Graduate Studies, Dr Robert Parkin, has overall responsibility for co-ordinating ISCA postgraduate courses. He is Chair ex officio of the Teaching and Graduate Studies Committee (staff only), which meets each term.

What induction arrangements will be made?

Colleges usually have their own individual induction programmes, including the provision of university cards allowing access to libraries and other university buildings, including those of the School; these function as swipe cards in many cases (in case of problems obtaining access to any of the School buildings that permit student access with these cards, apply to the ISCA general office). Students should find School welcome packs waiting for them on their arrival at their colleges, containing details of relevant induction sessions. Students are required to register in the School early in the week before their first term (so-called ‘0th week’), usually on the morning of the Tuesday of that week. They will be asked to sign a registration form and to agree to be photographed to aid their visual identification subsequently by School staff. Students normally receive a general induction to the School later that day, where the academic and administrative staff of the School introduce themselves and their work in the department. Students are also asked to introduce themselves briefly at this meeting. Further inductions follow later in the week to the Tylor Library and other relevant libraries in the university, the Pitt Rivers Museum and Centre, departmental IT provision, and, depending on the course, by particular course convenors (see below, 6). Students should already have been told who their supervisors will be by this time via letters previously sent to them and should make a particular effort to meet them during ‘0th week’ (the week before term begins) to discuss their studies.

How many weeks are students expected to work in Oxford?

Students should expect to be in Oxford during the eight weeks of each term, unless they are doctoral or M.Litt. students pursuing agreed fieldwork or research elsewhere. There is more flexibility in vacations, but even if they go away, students should still expect to continue working on their own towards their degrees (this may be linked to set coursework or other assignments of some kind). The M.St. degree lasts for approximately nine months altogether, the M.Sc. degrees for twelve months and the M.Phil. degrees for 21 months. Research degrees typically last for an unspecified, though not unlimited, number of years (e.g. approximately four to five for a doctorate in anthropology, though sometimes more).

What arrangements will be put in place for supervising and/or tutoring the graduate's work? What is the pattern of teaching events (lectures, tutorials, classes etc) for the course?

Each graduate student is allocated a supervisor within the School, or in the case of research students sometimes two (NB: at graduate level ‘tutors’ are generally called ‘supervisors’ in Oxford, whether they are teaching on taught courses or research degrees). Taught course students especially may have tuition from other members of staff than their main supervisor, e.g. for option courses. Departmental supervisors are mainly responsible for guiding their students through their specific courses in regular tutorial or supervision sessions, the type and frequency of which depend on the course being followed (for example, a possible eight tutorials a term for a taught-course student, or two to three supervision sessions a term for a research student, depending on activity). Full details of individual course structures and teaching provision is given in the course descriptions in the departmental Handbook.

Supervisors give students advice on their coursework, theses or preparation for examinations, as well as on what lectures and classes to follow; they are also involved in the administrative side of students’ activities (form-filling etc.). Generally speaking, while supervisors do have to approve many steps administratively in a student’s career, their academic role is rather one of advisors. Nonetheless students are expected to take this advice seriously and to assume a large degree of responsibility themselves for the progress of their own studies. Students have the right to see the termly reports written on their progress by their supervisors and to be consulted on these.

Supervisors and other tutors are not necessarily, even perhaps rarely, members of the student’s own college at graduate level, and most of the teaching and supervision will be done outside the college, in ISCA or a similar building. However, students are also usually assigned an advisor or personal tutor in their colleges, who may be in their own subject or close to it. This is someone the student may approach for advice, a second view, or if problems occur in the relationship with the departmental supervisor (who should be different). Alternatively a student may approach the School’s Director of Graduate Studies or Head of Department for advice.

What workspace will be provided?

Students may work in the ISCA library, but otherwise the School has only very limited workspace. A few dedicated workspaces are available. Students can normally expect to receive desk facilities along with their college accommodation. Colleges also have their own library and workspace facilities, and desks are available in the Bodleian (the main university library) and other libraries.

What IT Support, library facilities and experimental facilities will be available?

An induction session in the week immediately before the start of the academic year introduces new students to the department’s IT provision. The School has a computer room, which may be used for e-mail as well as word-processing, data-analysis and internet search purposes. Personal computers may only be linked to the net with the permission of the department’s IT staff, who reserve the right to test such equipment beforehand and refuse permission for its use. Upon arrival, students receive an e-mail account, login and provisional password (changeable immediately) from departmental IT staff.

There is a concessionary scheme to provide free a certain amount of printing within ISCA. The concessions are:

  • 400 free copies for DPhil students

  • 200 free copies for MLitt students

  • 150 free copies for second-year MPhil students

  • 100 free copies for MSc and MSt students

  • 50 free copies for first-year MPhil students

Since the scheme is concessionary, not statutory, it may be withdrawn at any time at the School’s sole discretion.

ISCA accommodates the Tylor Library, the main anthropology subject library, consisting of a number of different rooms on the ground and second floors and in the basement of 51 Banbury Road. Registered students may borrow most books, but not journals and certain other materials. Students may also use other departmental libraries and their own college library, provided the necessary conditions have been met (these vary from case to case). The Pitt Rivers Museum and Centre also has its own library (the Balfour Library), of interest to anthropologists. All registered students of the university and some other categories may use the main Bodleian Library and its dependent libraries as a matter of course (many of which are not ordinarily lending libraries). The University now has a wealth of electronic sources, some specific to particular libraries. You should be prepared to show your university card at any time in seeking access to any library or other building in the university.

Laboratory and other dedicated workspaces and equipment for methods teaching will be provided where required.

What research seminars will be available?

Provision of research seminars continues throughout the year, but varies from term to term. In general they are open to all members of the university, including both taught-course and research students, but some may have a teaching component which is more restricted; if in doubt, consult the seminar convenor. A major event in ISCA is the Departmental Seminar normally held on Friday afternoons in term, to which guest speakers from outside ISCA are invited, as is the case for certain other seminars (e.g. in museum and related studies, in medical anthropology, or on ethnicity and identity). The Pitt Rivers Museum and Centre and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) hold similar seminars within their respective areas of interest. Other research seminars involve ISCA research students at various stages of their work giving talks on their individual projects. In either case, research seminars are distinct from classes to teach particular courses (e.g. optional papers). The latter may also be of interest and, in principle, be attended by any student in ISCA; it is, however, conventional to seek the permission of the course tutor as a courtesy if one wishes to attend a teaching class for a course one is not being examined in. Both seminars and classes may be held in buildings other than those belonging to ISCA. Lists of lectures, seminars and classes held in every University department, including ISCA, are published every term. Seminars and classes in related disciplines may also be of interest to ISCA students. Both seminars and classes generally permit interaction with the audience in the form of discussion and questions; they are therefore distinct from lectures, which are typically linked to specific degrees and are not normally interactive, though individual lecturers sometimes permit brief questions to be asked for purposes of clarification.

What access to research funds will be available?

LIST OF FINANCIAL GRANTS ADMINISTERED BY ISCA

A) Major charitable awards

  • Philip Bagby Studentship. Funds from this bequest support one studentship, normally for two years (with a possible third year), for ‘the comparative study of the development of urban literate culture’. PRS/DPhil or potentially second-year MPhil.
  • Alan Coltart Scholarship. Offered by Exeter College for up to three years of funding or fee reduction for students conducting research in anthropology at Oxford. Not currently available.
  • Graduate Studentship in Anthropology in association with the Rausing Scholarship, Linacre College, with matching funding from ISCA.
  • Alun Hughes Graduate Scholarship. In association with Jesus College. Up to four years for doctoral (not MPhil) research into the languages and/or cultures of Polynesia or Micronesia, including the relationship and interaction of such cultures and languages with those of Melanesia. Not currently available.
  • School bursaries. Details change from time to time: information will be posted on the School website.

B) Travel grants and other small awards

  • The Bagby Fund periodically makes small grants to young scholars (whether registered students or not) working in the field of social anthropology at Oxford.
  • Peter Lienhardt Memorial Fund Small Travel Grants. The Fund was established for “the furtherance of research within the University in Social Anthropology”.
  • Godfrey Lienhardt Memorial Fund. In conjunction with Wolfson College. Periodically makes available small grants for travel to or small research projects in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding the Republic of South Africa.

C) Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

A small number of awards for doctoral research, linked if appropriate to those of our master’s degrees that have ESRC recognition as research training degrees (MSc Social Anthropology Research Methods, MSc Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography Research Methods, MSc Visual Anthropology, MPhil Medical Anthropology). Citizenship and residence requirements apply.

  • Typically the ESRC grants ISCA two or three quota awards over a one- or two-year period for up to four years of funding (1+3 if with an MSc; 2+2 if with an MPhil.
  • In addition, we normally have the right to submit one application of a similar type for the open competition awards, offered to applicants across the social sciences in all UK institutions.

D) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

ISCA may sponsor one applicant to the AHRCfor funding of the MSc. in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography only. Excluded from funding under this heading are the 'Research Methods' variant of this degree and doctoral studies.

For information on University funding, consult the main University website. Another potential source of funding for anthropological research is the Wenner Gren Foundation (USA). Many Oxford colleges also have some suitable funding. See the relevant websites for details.

What formal graduate skills training is provided?

Students in all programmes of study are given intensive training, through practice in the first instance, in understanding and interpreting texts and writing essays on the basis of these texts, as well as constructing longer works of varying length in the form of theses or extended essays, the higher ones in particular normally being based partly on field research. Part of this training involves learning how to construct arguments and support them with evidence at a high level of academic discourse, as well as to develop the ability to criticize the work of others in the discipline effectively but professionally. At the same time, students are encouraged to develop their own intellectual strengths and scholarly abilities so as to equip them for involvement in the discipline at a professional level. Research students in particular are given a number of opportunities to present their work in class or seminar formats and are encouraged to attend relevant conferences in Oxford or elsewhere to present papers. Continual guidance in such activities by supervisors forms a core aspect of ISCA teaching, but students are also expected to work largely on their own and to organize their studies and work effectively in relation to both structure and time management.

In addition, classes are held on research skills and methods of special relevance for anthropologists, including (depending on the specific course) project design, fieldwork, data collection and analysis (qualitative and quantitative), interviewing, visual aspects, cataloguing and databases, museum collections management and conservation, writing up and ethics. Students on some courses are also required to attend statistical training, which is generally available for other students who want it. On some courses, some of this work is marked and contributes to the degree result. Training in teaching skills is dealt with in 10, below.

The Social Sciences Division also organizes a Professional Training for Social Scientists (PTSS) programme covering a range of generic skills, which research students in particular are encouraged to attend. Information about training and other courses offered across the University is available through the University Skills Portal at www/skillsportal.ox.ac.uk. This site provides information about transferable skills development for research students and research staff in the University, and includes a searchable database of skills training opportunities, links to articles on subjects such as project management, teaching and career planning, and message boards for asking questions and discussing issues with other researchers. An online Personal Development Plan system called ASPIRE is available through the Skills Portal.

What opportunities will be available for developing and practising teaching skills?

Research students are permitted, but not obliged, to undertake some undergraduate teaching. Such teaching is generally arranged by the colleges, not ISCA, and there is no guarantee that any will be available. In anthropology, teaching opportunities are normally restricted to research students who have returned from fieldwork and are writing up their theses. Would-be graduate tutors are periodically given an introduction or briefing to tutoring by a member of ISCA staff. Those interested should ensure that their names appear on the lists of tutors maintained for each paper within the School of Anthropology (of which ISCA is a part), including the Institute of Human Sciences (for that degree), as well as by the separate Institute of Archaeology (for the Archaeology and Anthropology degree). Would-be tutors are expected to have attended one of the briefings or training sessions mentioned above to be registered. ISCA has set up a mentoring scheme for graduate tutors, including possible certification, in connection with the Department of Education; those interested should approach the School Director of Graduate Studies or other officer with direct responsibility for these activities.

The University has established a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to support the development of research students who wish to follow an academic career, including training in teaching skills.

What arrangements for accommodation, meals and social facilities will be made on a year-round basis?

Accommodation and meals are mostly provided by students’ colleges (see below), though many students live out, especially longer-term students. The School’s main buildings have some limited facilities for making hot drinks, and there is a coffee morning every Wednesday in term. There are also periodic functions put on by ISCA itself, one of its research units or the Oxford University Anthropology Society (a University society associated with ISCA and open to all students and staff). Research seminars involving outside speakers (including the Departmental Seminar mentioned in 7 above) often proceed to some kind of refreshments after concluding. These bring research students together with academic and other research staff in the department to hear about on-going research, and they also provide an opportunity for networking and socializing.

Most colleges should be able to provide you with at least one year’s accommodation, but late applicants may find they are given a college place without accommodation. Generally speaking your college will provide meals throughout the year (for payment), but provision will vary from college to college, especially during vacations, and you will need to familiarize yourself with your college’s detailed arrangements. In addition there are usually self-catering facilities available in graduate accommodation, some of which is specifically for students with spouses or partners and/or families. You will be a member of the Middle Common Room (MCR), or equivalent, of your college, which is the main social centre for graduates. In addition to providing a common room, MCRs usually organize programmes of social events throughout the year. The MCR also typically represents the interests of its members to the college through an elected Committee or through elected representatives to College Committees. The college will also normally have a bar, some computing facilities and a library, and may often have dedicated funds for research (conference and field grants). Again, details will vary from college to college. Graduates are welcome to participate in all the social and sporting activities of the college. Please see individual college websites for further details about all aspects of college provision. Graduate research students may become members of the University Club in Mansfield Road.

What arrangements are in place for pastoral and welfare support?

If students encounter problems during their studies, they should consult their supervisor in the first instance. If the problem relates to the supervisor in some way, students should approach the Head of School or the Director of Graduate Studies for the School. Every effort will be made to resolve such problems to the satisfaction of everyone concerned.

There is an extensive framework of support for graduates within each college. Indeed, colleges have a leading responsibility for students’ pastoral care and can arrange help in many areas, including study support (e.g. medical, dyslexia or dyspraxia; English language support). Your college will allocate you a College Advisor from among its senior members, usually in a cognate subject, who will arrange to see you from time to time and whom you may contact for additional advice and support on academic and other matters. In college you may also approach the Tutor for Graduates and/or the Senior Tutor for advice. The Tutor for Graduates is a fellow of the college with particular responsibility for the interests and welfare of graduate students. In some colleges, the Senior Tutor will also have the role of Tutor for Graduates. Each college will also have other named individuals who can offer individual advice (e.g. the college chaplain).

The University also has a professionally staffed confidential Student Counselling Service which offers assistance with personal, emotional, social and academic problems. Students are urged to seek help in any difficulty, rather than try and cope on their own.

There is also a University Careers Service to give advice on life after university.

What arrangements are in place for student feedback and responding to student concerns?

The School has a Graduate Joint Consultative Committee (GJCC) to liaise with its students, the officers of which are drawn from the student body and include course representatives, though both academic and non-academic staff are also represented and attend its meetings. The GJCC meets every term to discuss matters of mutual interest and concern between School and its students, and in particular provides a forum in which students’ views and concerns can be brought to the attention of School staff. Students’ views regarding courses are also sought through the circulation and return of anonymous feedback forms. The views of research students are also sought through a questionnaire centrally administered by the University. There is also an online reporting system (GSS) to which students may contribute on a voluntary basis.

Other information

Comprehensive information about the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, its courses, activities and personnel can be found on the ISCA website, which also contains an electronic copy of the ISCA Graduate Student Handbook (updated yearly). The Examination Regulations (the so-called 'Grey Book', from the colour of its cover), also updated yearly, is the main source of authoritative information about courses and examinations.

To listen to four students on different taught Master's degrees (Social Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, and Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology) discussing what it's like to study in Oxford, please visit this page.

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